Lounging on board a yacht and larking around in the pool of their upmarket resort, they look like any other young Britons on holiday. But you’re paying for their fun.

The swimsuit-clad partygoers relaxing in Thailand are a film crew shooting the BBC’s latest reality TV offering, which costs about £1million a series.

Viewers reacted angrily yesterday after it emerged that the 15-strong team are staying at a five-star beachside hotel in the island of Phuket at licence fee payers’ expense while they film BBC3 show Sun, Sex And Suspicious Parents.

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A hard life: Producer Blake McGrow (centre in black) and his team enjoying time off on a yacht in Thailand

High life: The crew spent their time drinking in bars, lounging on yachts and lying on the beach

Tough gig: Producer Blake McGrow posted this picture of a bucket of rum cocktail during the trip

Having fun: BBC film boss Blake McGrow boasts to his friends online about enjoying cocktails while the crew has no filming to do

The programme follows the drunken
antics of young holidaymakers abroad while secretly allowing their
parents to spy on them and confront them about their behaviour.

But looking at the holiday snaps of
the film crew sent to record them – which also show them downing rum
cocktails – it seems there is little to distinguish the subjects of the
programme from its makers.

Most of the crew are freelancers
working for production company RDF, which is paid around £150,000 an
episode for each seven-episode series.

Producer and director Blake McGrow
posted a series of photos of the staff enjoying themselves in breaks
between filming last month.

Relaxing: Female members of the crew enjoy a spectacular Thai beach in this picture posted online

Idyllic: Another crew member posted this picture of the view from their five-star hotel

No worries: With nothing to do, the crew spent their time lounging on yachts and drinking in bars

He wrote: ‘Not much to film at the mo,
so spending time relaxing down the beach! So yeah it’s going well.’
Next to another series of snaps of himself kayaking with another team
member, he joked: ‘It’s a terrible job. I’m exhausted.’

It is thought the crew enjoyed a short
break in filming because two participants who were due to be filmed for
one episode pulled out at the last minute.

The crew stayed at the smart Kalima
Resort & Spa, where the cheapest rooms cost £185 a night. It boasts
spectacular ocean views and rooms with private pools.

Yesterday some viewers called on the
BBC to stop using licence fee payers’ money to fund ‘trashy programmes’
which allow staff to enjoy luxurious trips abroad. Writing on
MailOnline, one said: ‘All aboard the licence fee payer gravy train.
Disgusting behaviour, but you would not expect anything less from the
once great BBC these days.’

Another added: ‘Good old BBC. Happy to
spend our money on having fun while simultaneously creating programmes
designed to dumb down our nation’s youth.’ A third said: ‘I don’t think
the BBC should be wasting taxpayers’ money on any of this tacky cheap
television.’

Luxury: The Kalima Resort & Spa in Phuket where rooms start at £190 a night

Fun in the sun: The crew were left with an unexpected break when one of the documentary subjects pulled out

The format of Sun, Sex And Suspicious
Parents – which was launched in 2011 to a panning from by critics – sees
holidaymakers in their late teens and early twenties sent on to a
foreign resort.

Although they know they are being
filmed, they are not told until the end of the episode that their
parents have also been at the resort and have watched their every move
on video screens.

Yesterday a BBC spokesman denied
reports that the two participants had cancelled after they realised the
deception, saying instead that they had pulled out for ‘personal
reasons’. He said: ‘Production schedules were amended due to a change of
contributors but the production team continued to work and film other
material for the series.

‘As with all productions, staff work
very long hours, with the right to some time off. RDF followed all BBC
guidelines while filming the series and it will deliver in full, and for
the original BBC programme budget.’

The crew currently filming the next series will each take five days holiday out of the 34 days total filming time in Thailand.

Although they paid for all private
expenses incurred in their own time, they have each been given a £25
daily allowance to cover day-to-day expenses while they are working.

THE BBC WASTE TRAIL - HOW CORPORATION SPENDS YOUR MILLIONS

Reward for failure: The BBC gave former director general George Entwistle a £475,000 payoff

The BBC has repeatedly been exposed for wasting licence fee payers' money on doomed projects and expensive pay offs.

In May, the corporation admitted it had blown £100million on a failed IT, the Digital Media Initiative.

First billed five years ago as 'the single most important initiative we are working on', the scheme was meant to save money by allowing all production staff access to video and audio material.

But costs spiralled, the project ran 21 months behind schedule and it was eventually halted in April this year.

Former director general George Entwistle walked away from his job with £475,000 after being sacked following a calamitous 54 days in charge.

And the National Audit Office revealed the BBC handed its own staff £369million in severance payments over eight years.

MPs said the massive sum showed an ‘outrageous disregard for licence-fee payers’ money’.

The
National Audit Office said the BBC often breached its own guidelines
and had ‘put public trust at risk’ by authorising the payouts, including
£61million to senior managers.

Three internal reviews set up in the wake of the Jimmy Saville scandal have already cost £5million.

And despite spending £1billion revamping Broadcasting House in central London, the BBC will spend £3million a year renting back Television Centre which was closed in March.